Convoy Routes

[Finarfin]

Stop the Press
Actually I got it wrong, the resource value to the right of the slash (I called it B above), seems to be the total quantity that becomes available at the convoy home port each day! Your example indicates that you had a stockpile of steel and were moving 117 per day but only 25 steel per day are being replaced. Eventually your steel stockpile will reduce to zero and all of the ships in the world won't move more than 25!

With my HOI credibility in tatters, I'll shut up now...

Good Luck

I'm not so sure that you weren't correct the first time. In another example, I have a province that is producing 22 steel per day. This is the only steel in this convoy. The numbers listed next to this convoy read 22/40, which at this point just confuses the issue. On top of that the equation of (transports * 2 - 1 = maximum resource transported) doesn't seem to hold, either. At this point, I have absolutely no clue what the numbers before and after the slash mean. Maybe I should analyze each convoy, since I only have a couple due to limited territory, and see if I can make sense out of it.

 

[comac]

Remember though that HOI will pool all of the resources of the convoy's home province and all connected provinces. Is it possible that in your 22/40 convoy, the extra 18 steel are coming overland from another province(s)?
Just wondering...

Cheers

 

[Finarfin]

Remember though that HOI will pool all of the resources of the convoy's home province and all connected provinces. Is it possible that in your 22/40 convoy, the extra 18 steel are coming overland from another province(s)?
Just wondering...

Cheers

In that particular case there were no other producing provinces. (Remember, this is what's left of France after most of the provinces go Vichy.) I'm basically convinced that I have no clue what's going on in the maths of this game. I decided to start looking at things on a province by province basis. According to the ledger, my provinces produce a total of 21 ICs. But when I point to the total on the main screen the popup says that I have resources for 5 IC out of a 6 maximum. Huh? What happened to the other 15? Regardless of how many I can actually use, shouldn't the total be 21? I just don't get it.

 

[Finarfin]

Here's a specific, and simple example:

At one end of a convoy is Beirut. The only thing being produced in all connected areas is 2 oil daily. That's it. The convoy route is 16 areas to the destination. According to the FAQ this means that the minimum convoy needs to be 16 transports. Those 16 transports, again according to the FAQ, should be able to transport 31 of each resource daily (16 * 2 - 1).

Here's what the convoy information says:

x/20 (x is the number of convoys I've decided to assign)

Oil 2/4

The 2 is the only thing that makes sense. All I have to transport each day is 2 oil. But what does the 4 mean, and why is the minimum convoy 20 transports?

 

[unmerged(20887)]

The reason was to give the AI a fighting chance against the much more intelligent human player. The problem is, it swung the pendulum too far in the other direction for most players. Many welcomed the challenge, but most found that it made the game either unplayable or no longer fun. If you like a real challenge, keep it. If you prefer kicking butt, use that patch.

I'm hesitant to remove it since it was obviously added for a reason. I'm just not sure what that reason was....

 

[Finarfin]

I decided to do a little experiment to see if I could figure out what some of the numbers in the convoy screen mean. Here is some data.

Convoy from Beirut to Cayenne

The only thing being gathered at Beirut for transport is the 2.2 Oil produced daily in Rawah province.
The minimum convoy size is 20 transports.
The amount of Oil being transported each day is 2/4.

The '2' is obviously the amount being transported, as that is all that is at the port, and no stockpiles are being created. The '2/4' doesn't change regardless of how many transports I add to the convoy. This makes sense as 2 is all that is available. However, I have no idea what the '4' means, nor do I have any idea what the potential transport capability of a 20 transport convoy is, if the resources were available to transport.

Now on to a more complicated example.

Convoy from Libreville to Cayenne

I have stockpiles of Steel and Rubber at this port.

The minimum convoy size is 11 transports.
With 11 transports the following numbers occur:

Steel 16/15
Rubber 16/45

Both resources have stores well in excess of 16. From my understanding the amount transported should be 21 of each, not 16. And again, I don't know what the '15' and '45' mean.

For the next day I double the number of convoys to 22, and get the following results:

Steel 38/15
Rubber 38/45

So the first number is obviously related to the number of transports, though it did not double or match the number according to the FAQ.

Has no one ever questioned this before? How can you plan properly if you don't know what you are going to yield from the number of transports? This is the most frustrating part for me about any Paradox game, i.e. the lack of clarification on what is going on and what the designers decided to show you on the screen.

What the hell does 38/15 and 38/45 mean? What is the relationship between these numbers and the number of convoys in a transport????

 

[unmerged(20887)]

Most times it's voodoo to me, too. The first number is definitely how much is actually being transported, that much I know for sure. I usually keep a scrap piece of paper and a pen next to me when I try to figure out my convoy allocations. Watch the stockpile at the originating province at midnight and note how the stock levels change. If you need to adjust transport levels, each one you add or subract affects shipping from that particular port by 2. It's a pain in the @ss to do it this way, but it works.